Gary Brown: What’s in a name? For bowl games, it’s everything but the kitchen sink

Monday

Dec 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2010 at 9:36 AM

By the time you read this, that bowl game and six others already will have been played. And I will have watched at least major portions of all of them.

Gary Brown

Does it strike anybody else as peculiar that the Holiday Bowl game is not played on a holiday?

It started out in 1978 being played on Dec. 22. It was only a matter of time before the people organizing the event were clued in about the date.

“Pssst! Dec. 25 is the holiday.”

Oh. Oops. It doesn’t sound as good to call it the Three Days Before the Holiday Bowl. So they apparently changed the date.

Now the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl is played on Dec. 30. I think I hear a very educational throat-clearing sound.

“Ahem! ... The holiday is Jan. 1.”

My favorite name for a bowl game is the one Southern Mississippi and Louisville played in last week. It was called the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg. It was like the planning committee couldn’t decide on a Chamber of Commerce request.

“OK, fine. No more arguing. We’ll stick the city in the name. Now, let’s pick two teams and get on with it ...”

Bowl watcher

By the time you read this, that bowl game and six others already will have been played. And I — possessing enough pop, popcorn and potato chips to survive the strenuous bowl game lineup — will have watched at least major portions of all of them.

Did it matter that BYU (7-6) beat UTEP (6-7) 52-24? Not really. Does it mean anything that Troy (8-5) downed Ohio University (8-5) 48-21. Probably not. Did my life significantly change after Northern Illinois (11-3) won over Fresno State (8-5) 40-17. Not that I noticed.

But they were bowl games. I have no explanation other than one of them was played on that silly blue Boise State field. That ought to account for at least a little of my interest.

Maybe not.

There might not be a reason to watch all the bowl games other than they’re on television. Let’s face it, there are 35 bowl games scheduled this year. For a guy to want to watch every single one of them, he can’t be somebody who is terribly picky about how he spends his life.

What's on tap

Today, we’ve got the Little Caesars Bowl; watch it with a pizza. Tomorrow is the AdvoCar V100 Independence Bowl, which used to be just the Independence Bowl before college football went a little corporate. Tuesday is the Insight Bowl, which, ironically, I can’t tell you much about.

Wednesday, we have the Military Bowl. But the Armed Forces Bowl is Thursday. That seems a little redundant.

Friday, we all can support our auto industry and watch the Meineke Car Care Bowl at noon, the Hyundai Sun Bowl at 2 p.m. and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl at 3:30. If you don’t at least buy some new wiper blades or floormats on Saturday, you weren’t paying attention.

New Year’s used to be the day for major bowl games. The Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO, the Progressive Gator Bowl and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl try to recall those old days in a way that makes it obvious that we no longer need to “pause for a word from our sponsor.”

The Discover Orange Bowl on Jan. 3, the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4, and the AT&T Cotton Bowl on Jan. 7 have been sold to the highest bidder, as well.

The commercialism of college football, however, will not keep me away from the TV screen. But I’m going to need to get a wide-screen television before the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.